Hehe. Well, I couldn't get the second either. I'm guessing it was already in name_scan and I didn't see it, that's why it didn't give me an error. d/q wasn't when I tried to update (though I'm not sure). It could as well be the other way around.

You won't get the name until at least 12 blocks after the block name_new went through on. You should get it if you didn't get an error. I have gotten all of mine.

You won't get the name until at least 12 blocks after the block name_new went through on. You should get it if you didn't get an error. I have gotten all of mine.

OK, another question. What happens if you update before 12 blocks have passed?

So far for me I have just had to wait 12 blocks and all of my names have come online. Trying to do a name_firstupdate on an existing name and lossing the NC must just be a bug. I recommend not doing that! That would also be good reason to wait 12 blocks to make sure someone doesn't beat you to the name.

So I've been generating for 48 hours and haven't picked up a block yet--are people gpu mining this? Current difficulty is 512--what does that equate to in MHash-hours for finding a block?

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So far for me I have just had to wait 12 blocks and all of my names have come online. Trying to do a name_firstupdate on an existing name and lossing the NC must just be a bug. I recommend not doing that! That would also be good reason to wait 12 blocks to make sure someone doesn't beat you to the name.

I get the same error with name_update d/q as well. Either way, even if the transaction gets rejected, I pay the fee and I can see it in listtansactions. With d/bet I have a different situation. As it is in my names list (unlike d/q), I can send update requests without errors. Of course none of them gets in the block chain, since it actually belongs to someone else...

I've burnt a lot of money here, do I at least get beta testing credits?

3. Has the NameCoin protocol been properly designed to allow cross-mining?

4. Can someone explain the economics here--if this thing runs on the same distribution curve as BitCoin (with a finite total of Namecoins) then doesn't that cap the total entries at 19,000,000/0.01, and if it has an infinite total then doesn't that wipe out the mining incentive?

Now you guys see why I'm so nice to n00bs--I know that at some point, inevitably, I will be one again.

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4. Can someone explain the economics here--if this thing runs on the same distribution curve as BitCoin (with a finite total of Namecoins) then doesn't that cap the total entries at 19,000,000/0.01, and if it has an infinite total then doesn't that wipe out the mining incentive?

Methinks that it only generate 50 namecoin every ten minute. However, the FAQ said name registration will destroy namecoins.

Forever, or on the BitCoin curve with that amount reduced every two years?

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More questions--do namecoins show in "getinfo" before they mature, or after? And if after, how does one know they are mature and what happens if you try to register a name before your coins mature?

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More questions--do namecoins show in "getinfo" before they mature, or after? And if after, how does one know they are mature and what happens if you try to register a name before your coins mature?

Namcoins show up 120 blocks after the block is found. As far as I know, they cannot be spent before then. If you try to run "name_new" or "name_firstupdate" without enough Namecoins (as shown in "getinfo") then you'll get an error.

- should the TLD be .bit or something that ICANN is unlikely to ever register, like .b, .n or even .-b?

That's the risk with making a top-down decision for a system wide TLD instead of letting people choose their own TLDs and taking the risk individually.

The approach I'm going to take (unless I decide I like your project enough to halt development on mine) is to not set a global TLD for this system, but let users register their own TLDs. The resolver would by default give priority to ICANN TLDs over those from the distributed system (to make the transition smoother for normal people who might not be quick to stop using com/net/org, etc). Users would be able to change a setting if they wanted to ignore all ICANN TLDs, or choose certain ones to use/ignore. All of the DNS information for TLDs and sub-domains would be stored in a DHT, and the DNS settings on the user's machine would point to a locally running DNS server which acts as the gateway to the DNS info stored in the DHT. I'm not going to choose a TLD for everyone else, and TLD conflicts between the system and ICANN can be resolved by the users of the system, without relying on me to fix them.

The decaying network fee idea is interesting...I'm not sure what I think about it, yet. How many namecoins will the system create? Is there a set limit like bitcoin (I hope so), or will they be generated forever? Are the namecoins destroyed by the network fee ever replaced (not that I think they need to be)?

My turn to be the newbie: Is there a high-level discussion of the economics of NameCoin or DNS in general somewhere? What is the scare resource that needs to have a price attached?

My half-baked thoughts:

Seems like domain names are not the scarce resource; CPU power available to process transactions is the scarce resource. So it seems to me simply not allowing any free transactions, allowing an arbitrary number of "new domain" and "domain transfer" transactions with arbitrary fees attached, and allowing the mining nodes to decide which transactions to accept into their blocks and which to drop will create the "right" number of domain names at the "right" price.

Any individual, well-known domain name is a scarce resource. "google.namecoin" is worth more than "xblkje4klj21.namecoin"... but if I want to get the google.namecoin domain name from google (or a domain squatter), and google or the domain squatter is willing to keep paying the (minimal) NameCoin renewal transaction fee, then I can just offer them cash or bitcoins (or NameCoins) to transfer the domain to me.

How often do you get the chance to work on a potentially world-changing project?

Though FWIW I think NameCoin is more an experiment, and a P2P DNS based on bitcoin's proof-of-work notary service will look a bit different.

I'm looking into the exchanges, but I'm not making any promises just yet. I agree Namecoin is just an experiment, but it sure is a fun one!! BTW, it wasn't too long ago that Bitcoin was labeled as "experimental".